In this regard, McDonald (2013) reports that, “The justifications used to detain most of the suspected terrorists in camps are, as nearly everyone with any knowledge of constitutional law agrees, ridiculous” (p. 702). Although there is come controversy concerning the specific constitutional provisions that are applicable outside the United States, a trial by jury is a fundamental right that should be applied to Guantanamo Bay as well (McDonald, 2013). As McDonald (2013) concludes, “Therefore, the government cannot lawfully conduct trials in Guantanamo Bay without adhering to the Jury Trial Clause of the Sixth Amendment” (2013, p. 702).
Beyond the foregoing, the naval base at Guantanamo Bay is enormously expensive and the U.S. is not receiving a good return on this investment even though Cuba refuses the $4,095 lease payment each year. For instance, according to Eichenwald (2014), “Macho preening does not enhance national security. Nor does lying. Or flushing away hundreds of millions of dollars. But somehow such nonsense has become accepted dogma among America's political conservatives when it comes to the Guantanamo Bay detention center” (p. 37).
Certainly, the American taxpayers deserve to know how the tens of millions of dollars being spent on the Guantanamo Bay base each year and what impact all of these resources are having on the global war on terror, and having learned the accurate information about what goes on at the base, most Americans probably would object to the reality of the situation. For example, Eichenwald (2014) points out that, “All of these expenditures might make sense if Guantanamo served a purpose, but it doesn't” (p. 37). The purported purpose of the Guantanamo Bay detention center is to attempt to obtain intelligence from terrorist suspects (e.g. waterboarding), but even this purpose becomes flimsy when held up to the light of day. According to Eichenwald (2014), “None of these detainees have any actionable intelligence after more than a decade of being locked up (and if they haven't given up the information by now, they never will)” (p. 37).
According to Ha (2013), “The Guantanamo prison has been central to the U.S.'s anti-terrorism policy” (p. 23). In spite of the U.S. government’s position that the dozen or so terrorist suspects detained at Guantanamo Bay are threats to the nation’s security, though, Eichenwald and likeminded analysts agree that the Guantanamo Bay naval base is an anachronism in the 21st century that has long outlived its utility to the nation’s security interests. As Eichenwald concludes, “Guantanamo is a failure--legally, morally, strategically and financially. The only thing it is good for is making politicians look tough. And America shouldn't be wasting its money and reputation for that” (emphasis added) (2014, p. 37). Indeed, America’s money and reputation have been squandered if the results to date are any indication. For example, according to Conniff (2013), growing international outrage over the treatment of the suspected terrorists housed in the Guantanamo Bay detention center has damaged the credibility of the United States. In this regard, Conniff (2013) notes that, “Now, the spectacle of military medics force-feeding hunger-striking detainees, many of whom have been held for more than eleven years without trial, has stirred public outrage about the whole extralegal system of detention at Guantanamo” (p. 9).
Besides waterboarding, terrorist suspects at Guantanamo Bay have also been force-fed by military medics when they went on hunger strikes. The largest hunger strike at Guantanamo Bay took place between 2005 and 2006 when between 150 and 200 male prisoners who were protesting their innocence, the conditions in which they were being detained, their lack of legal representation and being detained indefinitely (Howland, 2013). Other issues under protest by the hunger-strikers during 2005 and 2006 included denial of opportunities to observe their religious practices, torture, and even putting drugs in the prisoners’ food (Howland, 2013). In sum, the terrorist suspects detained at Guantanamo Bay are being held as “unlawful enemy combatants” who violated the law by seeking to challenge the legitimacy of the United States (Howland, 2013). In response to the force-feedings, the cover of the Economist proclaimed: “’Unjust, unwise, unAmerican: Why terrorist tribunals are wrong,’ and displayed a blindfolded Justice, draped in Grecian robes, holding scales and sword, and seen in…
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